How do you get water quality test results for a subdivision water well?

Somebody asked that question, and I couldn’t answer it. So I called some people until I found the answer.

Search gadrinkingwater.net and example water quality test results

Go to gadrinkingwater.net

Search

You can search several ways.

For example, if you choose Click Here for the County Map of Georgia you get this map:

County Map

In that map I clicked on Lowndes County. That produced this rather long list.

Lowndes County list

You can click on any Water System No. from the list.

Or from the first search screen, you can put in a Water System Name. I entered quarterman, and clicked on Search for Water Systems.

That gets Quarterman Crossing Subdivision.

Quarterman Crossing Subdivision

No relation to the Quarterman family. The developers named the subdivision after Quarterman Road. Because of that, Lowndes County now has a rule that you can’t do that.

Anyway, I clicked on the Water System No. and got these details, which includes a point of contact with telephone number, email address, and postal address.

Water System Details

You can get water quality results by clicking on some of the Links on the left.

Or click on Violations, as I did.

Violations

So there was a violation a year ago.

Clicking on the Violation No. gets this detail.

Violation Detail

I’d like to know what the sample results were, so I went back up to Water System Details and clicked on Coliform/Microbial Sample Results.

That gets 29 records. Here is enough of them to cover the violation time period.

Coliform/Microbial Sample Results

Over on the right, I clicked on Print in the Well #1 row.

This Sample Report is a bit confusing because it claims Detection: Absent.

Well 1 Report 2023-04-19

So I tried the row that has E. COLI under Analyte Name.

That shows E. COLI Absent, but it also shows COLiFORM(TCR) Present.

E. coli 2023-03-07

It gives Sample Collected 03/06/2023, but State Notified On 03/21/2023. I don’t know why it took two weeks to notify the state, but that seems likely to be what triggered the violation.

If you want to know more about what these reports are supposed to mean, you could try:

EPD Southwest District Office
229-430-4144
(229) 430-4259
2024 Newton Road
Albany, GA 31701-3576

I’d like to thank Ashley at Lowndes County Environmental Health, (229) 333-5257, for pointing me in this direction.

Please be aware that many subdivision community wells, especially in Lowndes County, Georgia, have been taken over by the county, because the county used to sign agreements with developers to do that if whoever was managing the private water system couldn’t manage anymore. I believe Lowndes County no longer signs such agreements, but there are still many of them on the books.

And of course many subdivisions have county or city water.

My examples are for Lowndes County. However, gadrinkingwater.net works for any county in Georgia.

Maybe later I’ll do Florida.

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

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https://wwals.net/donations/

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